Encompass partners with Dialysis Clinics to secure complete diagnosis, care and treatment options for patients suffering from critical lower limb ischemia and foot wounds. The system is a proprietary copyrighted software and proprietary network of professional physicians specific to the PVD/PAD issue.

Friday, December 31, 2010

CMS issues final rule for dialysis facility quality incentive program

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a final rule for the Quality Incentive Program that will establish performance standards for dialysis facilities and provide payment adjustments to individual End-Stage Renal Disease facilities based on how well they meet these standards.

The final rule establishes the ESRD QIP performance standards, sets out the scoring methodology CMS will use to rate providers quality of dialysis care, and establishes a sliding scale for payment adjustments based on the facilities performance. CMS will assess each dialysis facility on how well its performance meets the standard for each measure and will calculate each facilities Total Performance Score. The maximum Total Performance Score a facility can achieve is 30 (10 points per measure). Facilities that do not meet or exceed performance standards will be subject to a payment reduction of up to 2% depending on how far their performance deviates from the standards.

CMS finalized three measures as the initial measure set during the first program year. Two of these measures are designed to assess whether patients hemoglobin levels are maintained in an acceptable range, while the third measures the effectiveness of the dialysis treatment in removing waste products from patients blood.

In future years CMS may add quality measures and establish additional performance standards that facilities will need to meet to receive full payment for the services they furnish to Medicare beneficiaries.

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About Me

Encompass partners with Dialysis Clinics to secure complete diagnosis, care and treatment options for patients suffering from critical lower limb ischemia and foot wounds. The Encompass Network is a web base application that provides clinics with the tools for a thorough screening, systematic refereeing, and complete patient follow through from diagnosis to healing. Our user friendly system requires minimal staff time and the automated referring systems allow the attending physicians to review data and refer patient to a specialist based upon the patient assessment profile and easy “refer now” option. The assessment profile will keep the clinic informed with patient diagnosis, treatments and updates that go on outside of the clinic. The Encompass Network Partners system is a proprietary copyrighted software and proprietary network of professional physicians specific to the PVD/PAD issue.